[i]Illuminated by the dull glow of his laptop screen, the university freshman reclined back into his chair as he browsed aimlessly. Jazz music played softly, contained to his room as to not disturb his parents who had already retired for the night. Though his body was ready to go to sleep, judging by the yawns he’d been making for the last hour, his mind refused to still and fall unconscious. So here he was, wasting away the night in front of his computer rather than underneath a warm, but certainly uncomfortable blanket. A yawn when the clock struck midnight and when Gavin reopened his teary eyes it was to the sharp light of his laptop screen, the only light in his room now.[/i]

“What the?” [i]Shielding his eyes, he turned down the screen’s brightness before trying to figure things out. Tapping the power button on his desk lamp to no avail, he sat back down and scratched his head. That his laptop had lost internet connection wasn’t missed by Gavin either. That… was odd to put mildly. While he would have chalked it up to a blackout, he couldn’t think of any plausible reason for one to have occurred aside from a fuck-up at the facility. While not impossible, it didn’t seem all too likely, but there wasn't much else he could go with. Sighing in annoyance at the abrupt end to his plans for the immediate future, he wondered what to do next before something else apparently decided it for him.

Nearly bolting from his seat when a shrill noise rang in his ears, Gavin spun around to face his door with his heart pounding. Glancing around nervously, the 19-year old took a few deep breaths to calm down. It didn’t work… on the contrary a deep pit seemed to form in his stomach as he stared at the shadows in the corner of his room. “I’ve seen enough goddamn horror movies for this shit…” With that eloquent line, he powered off his laptop, grabbed his phone as a makeshift flashlight, and got up to leave the room. 

What hit him first when he stepped out was the utter silence, though with the power out he supposed it made sense. The wooden floorboards were ice cold under his feet, but he managed to walk over them without even a single creak. A “skill” born from years of staying up late despite his parents’ disapproval. Pausing in front of the master bedroom, it only took a moment for Gavin to realize things were horribly wrong. His father wasn’t an obnoxious snorer when asleep, but it would be a far cry to describe him as silent. Yet that’s exactly what he heard at the moment. Uncaring of what his parents might say, Gavin opened the door slowly to be greeted with the sight of an empty bed. If his heart hadn’t been hammering before, it was certainly running at overdrive now. 

Leaving the room behind quickly, he didn’t know what was going on, but suffice to say Gavin didn’t feel safe. Returning to his own, he slung his backpack before he headed down the stairs, the phone’s light at max brightness to illuminate the way down. Seeing nothing out of place on the first floor, but still unable to shake the eerie feeling, he paused only to pick up a few things. Soon enough he was out of the house with flashlight and wrench in hand, walking across his front lawn. Swinging the beam of light left to right as he advanced, the feeling didn’t abate even after he’d left the confines of his home. The silence was unsettling to put mildly, and the town seemed dead for a lack of better word. Even this late at night there were usually some cars he could hear running of in the distance, insects or small critters making some noise, really anything aside from dead silence. [/i]